Good Work

As part of their intervention at MOCAK, Marta Romankiv, Dominik Stanisławski and Łukasz Surowiec have formed an artistic collective, venturing into a work area of the museum that normally stays invisible, considered non-artistic – namely, renovation and construction work. For a month, the artists will be renovating the Beta Gallery, to prepare the space for planned exhibitions – turning the institution’s infrastructure itself into a field of artistic activity.

The project brings questions about working conditions and the system of remuneration in cultural institutions, confronting the discretionary nature of artists’ fees with the clearly defined market rates applicable to construction jobs. The collective emphasises that, unlike artistic activities, renovation work is never done for free or at rates below the minimum wage.

Invoking the Manifesto of Visual Artists (2020) and its slogan ‘institutions belong to us’, Romankiv, Stanisławski and Surowiec propose to consider the issue of actual involvement in the functioning of a museum. They ask what an institution perceived as a shared space might look like – one in which artists shape not only the programme and content of exhibitions, but also the material infrastructure and everyday conditions of its operation.

Marta Romankiv (b. 1995) – Born in Lviv. Interdisciplinary artist, sociologist, creator of installations, video works and social situations. She studied at the Faculty of Arts of the Jagiellonian University and obtained her MA at the Academy of Art in Szczecin and the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She defended her doctoral thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk in 2025. She is the winner of, among others, the Maria Anto & Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven Art Award (2023) and the Allegro Prize (2020). She is a scholarship holder of the Gaude Polonia residency programme of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2021). Her works have been exhibited at the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Kunsthalle in Rostock, the National Museum in Nuremberg and the National Museum in Chișinău, among others.

In her work she focuses mainly on the theme of social inequality, and she treats art as a space for proposing alternative scenarios for the future. She pays particular attention to the themes of migration and civil and labour rights. Her projects are mostly participatory in nature, bringing together activism, social sciences and art.

Łukasz Surowiec (b. 1985) – Polish interdisciplinary artist, sculptor, performer, stage designer, video artist, initiator of social actions. He graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Surowiec’s works have been presented at numerous important group exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including: Celebration at the Kyoto Art Centre (2018), Procedures for the Head: Polish Art Today at Kunsthalle Bratislava (2015), Critical Juncture during the Kochi Muziris Biennale in India (2014) and during the 7^th Berlin Biennale at Kunst Werke in Berlin (2012). In 2017, he was nominated for “Polityka” Passports and the Views – Deutsche Bank Award (he received the audience award).

In his objects and artistic interventions, he explores current social relations and addresses historical and political issues. His work has become a method of revealing hidden realities, with a focus on marginalised individuals. By addressing social issues, he ventures beyond the walls of official art institutions.

Dominik Stanisławski (b. 1979) – visual artist, PhD in Fine Arts, graduate of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He works as an assistant professor at his alma mater. Previously, he had studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. He is a supervisor and curator at the Faculty of Painting Gallery. He has been working on the project Ideal City together with the Imago Mundi Foundation and the Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University. He is a member of the programme council of Somaesthetics and the Arts Centre, he is an active member of the O.W.L. Collective and works closely with students at the Kuns(z)t Gallery, operating at the Goethe-Institut Krakau.

His medium are images; he focuses primarily on the category of accident (a collision, a crash).